Bill beats a dead horse

What does a mayor do when he is struggling to get a hugely ambitious affordable housing plan off the ground, has promised a sweeping mental health agenda and is buffeted by polls showing that most New Yorkers believe the city is heading the wrong direction?

If you're Bill de Blasio, you waste time and energy renewing a fight to throttle a horse-carriage industry that has overwhelming public backing.

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The mayor rode into office, pun intended, on the back of a big-money campaign mounted against rival Christine Quinn by the animal-rights fanatics of NYCLASS. They wanted to ban horse carriages, killing 400 well-paying jobs. De Blasio promised to get the job done right quick — "on day one."

Now, NYCLASS is floating a plan that would limit steeds to Central Park, stable them there, shrink the number of horses from 220 to several dozen, cut the total 68 carriages roughly in half and toss most of the industry out of work.

Having retained a new public relations firm that knows better than to dabble in attacks on carriage drivers as anti-gay or anti-black, NYCLASS bills the scheme as a "compromise."

Not even close.

Instead, it is a calculated step toward destroying the industry's economic viability while accomplishing honcho Steve Nislick's dream of opening the enormously valuable land under West Side stables for development.

Mercury Public Affairs, which employs Rachel Noerdlinger, ex-chief of staff to First Lady Chirlane McCray, has so far managed to get de Blasio to feel out several Council members about the plan.

The pretty presentation will surely leave out crucial facts. Such as that the city confined the horses to Central Park in the early 1990s and discovered that the move crushed the industry as it lost income generated by rides to destinations like the theater district.

While saying he still believes in banning horse carriages, de Blasio on Tuesday ducked behind the "legislative process" to avoid committing to what must be a losing fight. The Council must once and for all put out of its misery de Blasio's willingness to put hyped-up concerns about animal welfare over the well-being of working New Yorkers.